go ahead and laugh

The 20th Melbourne International Comedy Festival is here, and I've discovered that I am a comedy addict.

I just can't help myself. They have so many ways to save money on tickets. They offer discounts on tickets during the first few days of the festival, special prices on Tuesday nights (they call it Tightarse Tuesday, tee hee!), and discounts if you buy tickets to multiple shows during the rest of the week.

So far, I've been to 3 shows.

1) Andy Muirhead - A local comedian who is also one of the hosts of a popular Aussie show called Collectors. He played in the Wee Room of the Town Hall, and this was quite a Wee Room. There were probably about 25 seats in the place, maybe 30. This was his first solo show at the comedy festival, and he told us how he previously was the opener for other acts. Part of his responsibilites as the opener was to introduce the 'big name' comic that played after him. But, since he didn't have an opener for his show, he needed someone from the audience to introduce him...

Guess who he picked.

It was, of course, highly embarrassing, but it went well. The show was funny and hopefully next year he'll get a bigger room!

2) Judith Lucy - I joined a couple of gals from work to see this Aussie favorite. It was a sold out show and quite funny. She talked about her experiences in the seedy world of commercial radio, among other things. She was brash and sarcastic and fantastically funny. At the end of the show, she advised us that whenever we start feeling bad about the state of Australia or the world, we should do what her fiance does to make himself feel better: Take a little flag of John Howard (the prime minister of Australia) and plant it in some dog doo. She even gave us flags to take home.



Isn't that a wonderful idea? Imagine every pile of crap in the U.S. having a little flag with George W.'s face on it! It would be oh, so appropriate. They haven't put anything about that in the patriot act yet, have they?

3) Rod Quantock - Another sold out Aussie performance. Pure political comedy, and hilarious. It was like and Australian daily show. I was glad to see that the American government is not the only one screwing over and ignoring the people all the time (although we are the best at it. USA! USA!).